There are many projects where it is sought to miniaturize as much as possible different types of electronic components. This time it seems that IBM wanted to demonstrate what all the technology available to its engineers is capable of by showing us what you see on the screen, the result of an interesting project where, according to the company itself, what would be the smallest computer in the world.
To get an idea, tell you something as simple as that this computer is little bigger than a grain of coarse salt. Although this is a bit difficult to believe, tell you that just below these lines I have left you a photograph taken directly from the official IBM website where you can see the size of this tiny computer without enlarged photographs. Undoubtedly, we are talking about an advance that will surely give people talk in the not too distant future.
This chip has been designed to support fields as different as artificial intelligence or blockchain
Personally, I have to confess that the development and manufacture of a product like the one you see on the screen has caught my attention, a chip that, according to the North American company itself, can have uses as different as serving to enhance fields such as blockchain o provide support for basic tasks related to the world of Artificial Intelligence.
Not surprisingly, the truth is that, despite that kind of fever experienced by manufacturers related to achieving, iteration after iteration, further reduce the size of their products, the truth is that in the world of computers, this trend It did not seem to be applied with such intensity, at least until now, when IBM, taking advantage of the celebration of the first day of the IBM Think 2018, has been unveiled what has been considered the smallest computer in the world.
Due to its size, at the moment, the computing capacity of this chip is similar to that of a 86 x1990
Going into a little more detail, specifically going into the bowels of a computer like this to know exactly what it can offer us, we find a product whose power is very similar, in terms of computing power and capacity refers to that of a 86 x1990 chip, something very logical and easy to understand if we take into account the dimensions of it. On the other hand, the technology is there which means that it is a matter of time before these benefits grow considerably.
As officials from IBM itself have officially commented, apparently we are facing a computer where the manufacture of each unit will have a price as low as some ten euro cents or something less. Despite this data, each one will have several hundred thousand transistors inside, a capacity more than enough to make it ideal for monitoring and data analysis tasks, communication with peripherals and even, to a certain extent, ability to act on data.
Despite its limitations, it can represent a great advance in terms of architecture and versatility within the technological world
Apparently, the true objective of IBM with this type of development is to create a chip that has sufficient capacity, among other things, to perform basic tasks related to artificial intelligence systems such as ordering the different data that are provided and even, within the field of blockchain applications, to help track product shipments while also helping to detect potential theft, fraud and non-compliance.
Unfortunately little else is known about a product like this since, as it usually happens and you will surely be thinking, we are talking about a computer that it's little more than a prototype which is still in the testing phase. Due precisely to this condition, those responsible for the North American company have not wanted to go into more details, so there are several questions left in the pipeline, such as the dates they handle so that this product finally reaches the market.